Field Trip
by Charity Angel
Summary: In which the extended Team Free Will take a trip abroad for a couple of days. [Turn Back the Clock verse]
1. Chapter 1

_This slots into Turn Back the Clock somwhere around the chapter 9-10 mark. Sam is back from Hell (which occurs in Chapter 6 of TBTC), and Cas and Gabriel are waiting to see what Raphael will do about the apocalypse._

 _The only thing that has been missed between TBTC and here is a conversation between Dean and Gabriel that is kind of fun, and totally written, but hasn't made its way into an actual chapter yet._

 _There is an MA/NC-17 version of this fic available on AO3, should you feel that way inclined._

* * *

Ellie had a house. That in itself shouldn't have been so surprising: Dean knew plenty of hunters with permanent homes. In fact, John had been unusual in not having a home base.

But Ellie had a nice house; big and old and with a library and a training room and more bedrooms than Dean would know what to do with.

"Hey, I didn't leave my boy with nothing, you know," Gabriel said, her arms crossing as she leaned against the doorjamb. Dean couldn't quite tell whether she was amused or irritated at his incredulousness.

Dean felt a bit cornered, trapped in this bedroom, with its solid oak furniture and an archangel blocking the only exit. Or the only one that wouldn't hurt a lot: the window was big enough to jump from if it came down to it. Maybe that was overly dramatic, but it paid to be wary with Gabriel around.

"I..." Dean didn't know what to say that wasn't going to sound really horribly insulting. Because the fact was that Ellie was clearly loaded, and maybe having a house wasn't unusual for a hunter, but having money was. "I just didn't expect this."

Gabriel shrugged. "Juri had an image to uphold when he came over here," she said. "He was a scholar, officially; researched local legends, the truth behind the myth kind of thing. Wrote a lot of books, came from a good family. The nice pile went with the image."

Dean snorted at Gabriel's description of what her son had done for a living. "How many of those things were you?"

Gabriel gave him a smile that was almost shy. "Then? None. Most of them were witches or monsters. And it meant he could justify having a library full of the supernatural. And this place?" Gabriel knocked an elbow against the doorjamb meaningfully. "Thick walls. Angel-proofed delicate things. Think of the fun you can have."

"Who needs angel-proofing?" Dean asked with a smirk.

Gabriel rolled her eyes. "Cas? Oh, sweetie, wait until you see what happens when he comes."

Dean just stared, his eyebrows raised. He was desperate to wind Gabriel up, but he sensed it would be more fun to let her work it out for herself.

"No! No way! How…"

Something changed in Gabriel's face, and one of these days, Dean was going to have to get around to defining the subtle difference between Gabriel and Ellie. Something in the eyes, because Gabriel looked a lot older there, like her millions of years showed. Cas' eyes showed his age too, but Dean was damned if he knew how that worked. He was even more surprised that other people couldn't see it; that he hadn't even seen it the first time he had laid eyes on the damn Trickster, because it was so obvious now.

"Hey, Munchkin."

"Hi, Dean. Sorry about Gabriel: she's got no respect for boundaries."

Dean shrugged. "Was kind of fun, winding her up like that."

Ellie blushed, just a little bit. "This is the most heavily protected room in the house, though," she admitted. "It was my great-grandparents'."

Dean knew enough about Ellie's family by now that he could work out the significance behind that one: Ellie's great-grandparents had both been guys, and the Van Helsing one, Gabriel's son, had been the last one in their family to have any mojo until her. The similarities between them and him and Cas didn't escape him. He also knew they had lived until she was ten, so she had some decent memories of them. It probably took a lot for her to give their room away.

He smiled and kissed the top of her head, which he knew she hated a lot less than she made out. "Thanks. So, Cas still in the library?"

She nodded, her eyes shining with laughter. Dean knew exactly why: Sam had had a complete nerdgasm when he saw the library, and had insisted on going through _everything_. Only he had discovered pretty quickly that most of the volumes were not exactly in English. The Latin ones he was fine with, but the majority were either German or Dutch, neither of which were languages Sam had bothered to learn. Cas had stayed with Sam while Ellie had assigned rooms and got them ready with Gabriel's help.

They were only planning on staying a day or so, just so that Ellie could get stuff in order before heading back to the States. True, Gabriel could yank her back every time she wanted to hang out, but they had discussed it between them, and it just made more sense for her to be right there with Sam and Dean. Plus, Dean was convinced that she and Sam had a thing. Something of a thing, anyway, and it certainly wouldn't hurt if Sam got laid. So she was planning on moving Stateside while whatever was going to go down in Heaven went down, and needed to do practical things back home. Dean had no idea what, but had fancied the trip to England even if it did mean flying Angel Airways: it was a hell of a lot better than flying any other way, like he had last time he had been to the UK.

Maybe he had entertained thoughts of actually seeing a bit of the country before, but now all he could think of was taking advantage of the room that had been handed to him on a platter; seeing what interesting noises and light shows he could wring out of Cas when they didn't have to worry about levelling Bobby's place. And maybe afterwards, they could get a good look at the warding and apply it to his room back home.

.oOo.

Dean had only just flicked on the TV out of some vague interest (expecting Doctor Who, because what the fuck else was on British TV) when the news article caught everyone's attention:

" _Another couple have disappeared from the Cardigan Bay area. Twenty-three year old Ffion Jones and twenty-two year old Siân Williams, both post-graduate students at Aberystwyth University, were last seen by housemates on Friday. This brings the total that have gone missing along the sixty mile stretch of coastline between Barmouth and Cardigan to fourteen over the last month: most from the Aberystwyth area. Dyfed-Powys Police and the coastguard are urging people to keep away from the water."_

"Wales, anyone?" Ellie asked, somewhat redundantly.

"I hate water monsters," Dean grumbled even as he reached for Ellie's laptop. "They're cold and slimy and have far too many fucking tentacles to be real."

"Tentacles aren't for porn, dude," Sam said, almost as a reflex. This was not a new complaint, and it had put him off tentacle porn for a good few weeks after their last encounter. Unfortunately, this time they had an audience, and that snigger had Gabriel written all over it.

.oOo.

The angels' quick scout of the bay yielded nothing, which was worrying in its own right: one couple might be an unfortunate accident (and Ellie had in fact written the first couple's disappearance off as such when it was reported just before she had been yanked out of her normal life); two might be coincidence over such a large area, but seven definitely spelled 'supernatural disturbance'. That the angels couldn't get a sense of what was causing it was definitely something Dean thought he should be concerned by.

Ellie opened up a secret doorway in the library to uncover what might have been called a study, but to the gathered hunters looked more like a war room. One whole wall was a pin-board, to which Ellie quickly attached a map of the Welsh coastline and, with Sam reading the information from the BBC News website, they quickly identified where the seven couples had vanished from, establishing a timeline of sorts.

It wasn't much to go on. As the news reporter had said, five of the disappearances were from around a much smaller (and much more touristy) area, but it was still a big area. Not unfeasible for a sea creature, mind: Cas and Gabriel both commented on how far sea creatures roamed, simply because of the sheer vastness of the ocean. They didn't have the same limits as land animals, and their territories were correspondingly larger.

Good old research seemed the best way to go: find out what they were up against before heading over to the other side of the country. Dean hit up the internet, Sam pulled out some possibilities from the few books he could read while Cas and Ellie browsed the ones he couldn't. Gabriel interjected some useful info occasionally, either adding to some sparse details or correcting so-called facts that were completely wrong. She crossed out and re-wrote things as she came across them, and encouraged Sam and Cas to do the same. Dean found it amusing to watch as sometimes, Ellie would be in charge and, with a sigh, switch the pencil from her right to her left hand as Gabriel told her to correct something.

Ellie's local Indian takeaway delivered some deliciousness late into the evening. Indian was something unusual for Sam and Dean, and something Ellie had bemoaned not being readily available in South Dakota. Sam scowled a bit at the sheer volume of carbs on offer rather than a nice, healthy salad, but Dean tucked in enthusiastically and forced Cas to try out the spicy sauces. As it turned out, Cas seemed to like the heat from the spice, and Dean managed to catch Gabriel's eye, the two of them in complete understanding, silently plotting Cas' downfall. Dean only hoped that Ellie didn't feel the need to tell Cas at any point.

Dean's research-brain slipped into a coma at around two in the morning, and he headed upstairs to crash, regretfully alone. He hoped the angels would get the message and make Sammy sleep too, otherwise he would be cranky and bitchier than usual in the morning.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Just a reminder that this fic has been edited to remove prohibited content. This chapter should be much, much longer; almost twice the length. AO3 is your friend, porn fans._

* * *

As he woke up, Dean wondered idly whether Cas would be amused, horrified or turned on by the fact that Dean had sex dreams. And, boy, what…

Dean looked down as he realised that the line between reality and fantasy had gotten even more blurred than usual.

"Holy shit!"

"Good morning, Dean," Cas said, sounding completely fucking normal and not at all as if he was waking Dean up with a blow job. "I trust you slept well?"

"M… morning," Dean stammered as things started to sink in. "I, er… Cas…"

No, Dean suddenly remembered exactly what he had wanted to do in this room: how much he had wanted to take advantage of this gift that Ellie had given them so that he could take Cas apart in complete safety.

"Not to knock the wake-up, Cas," Dean said, feeling himself start to smirk, "but I can think of lots of things I'd much rather be doing to you. Did Ellie – or Gabi, I guess – tell you about this room?"

Cas seemed to catch on. "No," he said, "but I can feel the unique protection wards."

Dean slid down the bed and gently rolled Cas onto his back. The angel was already nude and half-hard. His eyes widened as Dean straddled his stomach.

"Now," Dean purred, "relax."

.oOo.

Sam and Gabriel were waiting for them when they got finally downstairs. It wasn't late; barely even seven, which Dean thought was perfectly acceptable given how out of whack his body clock was. But Sam looked pissed and Gabriel was grinning suspiciously brightly.

"Did you even sleep?" Dean demanded of Sam, before turning to Gabriel: "Well, did he?"

Sam just glared. Gabriel rolled her eyes.

"Yes. I zapped our precious princess just after you vamoosed, and he's been like that ever since he woke up."

Sam scowled. "And what has my sleeping accomplished?"

Gabriel shrugged. "Your brain is working thirty percent faster than it was, though I can't say it's improved your disposition any. Maybe you need Dean and Cas' cure for the blues?"

"What?" Sam spluttered. "Oh, God, is that was that was?"

Ellie sighed and gave Dean and Cas an apologetic glance. She had clearly just shoved Gabriel back onto what she tended to call 'the naughty step' inside her head. She only ever did it forcibly when Gabriel overstepped somewhere, like just now.

"As it turns out," Ellie said carefully, her cheeks a delicate shade of pink, "while the walls are virtually soundproof and warded, the warding wasn't designed to take an archangel at full power. They were made for Opa Juri. Also, _shut up, Gabriel_! it turns out that certain frequencies of sound aren't absorbed so easily by stone walls. Sam won't have heard, but, um, we did."

"My apologies," Cas said easily. "I did not mean to disturb you."

Ellie blushed harder. "You… My problem if I'm embarrassed, not yours," she said, flustered. "I was raised human. Gabriel just thinks it's hilarious, and because of that she can stay where she is until she's ready to function in a human environment again."

Dean was kind of grateful for that, because he wasn't entirely sure he could put up with that infuriating grin all day. But it would be nice, not to mention helpful, if he could pick Gabriel's mind about the wards at some point, because it would be nice to not have any bits of stray power leaking out for all to see. But for now, for today, they had a case to focus on and, by the sounds of it, the angels hadn't gotten anywhere overnight. That wasn't a massive surprise, honestly, because Cas was always great when it came to random information on things they could identify, but useless at actual research, and Gabriel had the attention span of a gnat.

Cas snapped him up some pancakes and bacon and they settled down to business.

.oOo.

"Guys?"

Everyone looked up at Sam. He was still staring at some dusty book or other.

"What's up, Sam?" Dean prompted after a moment where Sam didn't even realise he had everyone's attention.

"What's the lore on mermaids?"

"They do not exist," Cas said quickly.

"Ah ah, don't go assuming," Gabriel jumped in, finally breaking out of her exile. "They're not one of Dad's, or even one of Eve's creature features, but I've heard things. Never seen one myself mind you, so I can't be sure, but probably less ' _Splash'_ and more ' _Goblet of Fire'_."

Dean resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Mermaids. Of all the mythological creatures that he believed were truly mythical, mermaids were right up there; fanciful stories for little girls and sailors so horny they had to justify fucking something in their own minds.

Cas had that pissy little scowl of his. "If they were not a creation of Fathers, or Eve's, where did they originate from?"

Gabriel shrugged. "Hybrids, probably," she said. "If angels and demons can make new 'creatures', then why can't monsters make new monsters?"

"Who's Eve?" Sam broke in, looking completely baffled.

"Mother of all monsters," Dean summarised, much to the angels' surprise. "She made the first vamp, first werewolf, skinwalker… You get the idea. She's stuck in Purgatory; we don't have to worry about her."

"You led an interesting life the last couple of years, didn't you?" Gabriel commented, clearly trying to hide her discomfort. "But anyway, Sammy might be on to something. What were you thinking, kiddo?"

Sam shrugged, still eyeing Dean warily. The angels had pretty much accepted it straight off the bat, but Sam was still struggling to wrap his head around the idea that Dean had skipped back a few years and was being allowed to change the established course of events. It wasn't noticeable really, but sometimes Dean would have a little titbit of knowledge he shouldn't, like Eve. And, of course, the fact that Dean had ditched fast women for a socially-awkward, guy-shaped creature.

"I don't really know," he said eventually, answering Gabriel's question. "Just, it's pretty much the first thing that comes to mind when you think of supernatural sea creatures, and there's fuck-all lore on them."

Gabriel's gaze shifted slightly and Ellie tapped her book excitedly. "Actually, I think between you, we might be on to something. I mean, there's all sorts of legends about mermaids luring horny men to their deaths and what have you. Maybe that's exactly what did happen, only the guys got caught _in flagrante delicto_?"

There was a cackle that was distinctly Gabriel. "I love the way she thinks sometimes."

Cas frowned, his eyes checking with the board before speaking. "That does not fit with the current pattern. Based upon the disappearance of Ffion Jones and Siân Williams, males are not being targeted."

"Maybe they're bi mermaids," Dean suggested with a grin. Now, that was a fun thought. Except…

"Don't ask it," Sam said with a long-suffering sigh, as if he knew exactly what Dean was thinking. And, if Dean was honest, Sam probably did know.

"Well, whatever it is, we're going to have to check it out, aren't we?" Ellie said. "We're not getting anywhere just sitting here."

Gabriel rubbed her hands together gleefully. "Boat trip, anyone?"

.oOo.

Cas had made a boat. They were on a boat that Cas had made from _nothing_. Damn, but his boyfriend was awesome. And Dean trusted him absolutely, and was in no way resisting the urge to check the thing from prow to stern for holes.

They puttered up and down the twenty miles that most of the couple had disappeared from, not really sure what they were looking for, given none of them really thought Ariel was going to flop up on the deck, or sit on a rock and flash her fins at them. None of them were really surprised that they didn't see anything, and they ended up tucked into a booth in a little restaurant in Aberystwyth, eating burgers and wondering what to do next.

"Not much we can do right now," Gabriel said before sucking enthusiastically on the sickliest looking chocolate milkshake ever.

"We keep watching," Sam said. "I… there's a big library in town; I could see if they've got any lore books that aren't at Ellie's."

Dean rolled his eyes. Of course Sam would suggest that, giant nerd that he was. But hitting the books was more practical than 'watching', since they had no idea where to watch. At least vamps were fairly easy to track down and werewolves tended to be consistent: it was easy to know where to start. Here, they were stuck in a no-Starbucks town in the middle of the creature's hunting ground, but it could be thirty miles or more either north or south of them. Or, of course, west, out into the sea.

"What if it lives out there?" he suggested, waving a hand in the vague direction of the water. "Way out? Only comes in close when it wants to pick up some takeout?"

Sam, predictably, rolled his eyes at Dean's crude phrasing, but the angels both eyed him carefully. Dean was used to how Cas looked at him by now, and this one was the 'that was an intelligent observation' look. The weird part was how closely Gabriel was copying it. There were moments where she was ridiculous, and moments where she was human enough to pass, and then there were the odd flashes of her actually being an angel.

The strangeness was over almost as soon as it began; Gabriel took a slurp of her milkshake, looking thoughtful. "Not a bad thought, kid," she said, "but Cas and I will struggle to cover an area of open water even that small."

"Not that difficulty will prevent us from scouting," Cas pointed out, fixing Gabriel with a sharp glare. "And, given that the majority of the disappearances occur in the evening, this would be a better time to search the coastal waters too."

Which was how Dean ended up freezing his ass off on the boat that Cas built, his eyes fixed on a sonar screen that Gabriel had picked up somewhere and somehow, pinging the waters along the Cambrian coast for the faintest signs of a mermaid instead of in bed, trying to make Cas glow again. God knew, he loved Sammy dearly and he never wanted to contemplate them being torn apart ever again, but his company wasn't quite the same.

"This is the worst idea ever," Dean grumbled, pulling his jacket closer around him. "And it's fucking July: would it kill them to turn the heat up around here?"

"You realise we're at the same latitude as Canada and Russia, right?" Sam pointed out snippily as he steered the boat as close to the shore as he dared in the failing light. "And water absorbs heat."

Of course Sam knew shit like that, and Dean was too cold to admit that he might have had a point (and, really? England was that far north?).

"Whatever, bitch."

"Jerk," Sam muttered, more as a reflex than with any real teasing sentiment behind it.

"C'mon, Sammy, this blows. Bitch could be anywhere. Let's find somewhere to moor up before it gets too dark to see. What time is it, anyway?"

"Ten thirty."

Dean frowned towards the setting sun. This really was a weird place, all cold and mermaids and lilting foreign language and the sun setting so goddamn late.

"Anyway, I bet no-one's out taking a romantic stroll on the beach right now," Dean pointed out. "Evil Ariel ain't getting her claws in anyone tonight."

"Perhaps you are right, Dean," Cas said as he appeared on the deck. "We should find some accommodation for you for the night."

.oOo.

Finding a couple of rooms had proved easy, actually: the usual crowd of holiday-makers were avoiding the area, and there were a lot of cancellations. The hotel manager had practically fallen over himself to accommodate actual paying guests.

Dean grabbed Cas before he could disappear off anywhere and held him tightly.

"Dean, I should resume my search with Gabriel," Cas said, only slightly reproachfully.

"You can," Dean said, feeling the sleep creeping over him already. It hadn't been the longest day ever, but all the flying and sea air had taken their toll. He just wanted to snuggle with his angel for a while.

"Just not right now."

Cas held him close and kissed the top of his head gently. "You are safe, Dean. Sam is safe. You can rest easy."


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: This chapter has been edited to comply with this site's regulations regarding content. If you want to see it how it should be, check out AO3 or LJ instead._

* * *

Dean woke blearily when Cas crept back into bed at ass o'clock in the morning; the sky only just turning pink beyond the curtains.

"Go back to sleep," Cas whispered softly to him. "I did not mean to wake you."

"Find anything?" Dean asked as he tucked himself into the side of Cas' warm body, pulling the angel into him. He was turning into a snuggler and he dammit, he loved it. Just being safe next to Cas was an awesome feeling.

"No," Cas told him. "But we will, rest assured."

Dean drifted back off happily, letting sleep reclaim him.

.oOo.

Dean could get used to being woken up by Cas. It didn't take long before he was collapsing back onto the bed, panting. It took a while for his eyes to cooperate and open, and another few seconds for them to focus on Cas. He was kneeling between Dean's legs, and he had that little smile, the one that only Dean ever got to see; the one that highlighted the crow's feet at the corners of his eyes.

"Cas, I…" Dean forced his limbs to obey him, to push himself up so that he could set about returning the favour.

Cas seemed to understand what he meant. He leaned in and kissed Dean tenderly.

"You need not," he said. "I would rather wait until I can give myself entirely to you once again, and I did not get the opportunity to look at Juriaan's wards before we came here."

Dean nodded. He got it, he did. Sure, Cas had liked it when Dean got him off, but he didn't feel the urge for sex like Dean did. It didn't mean the same to him when it was purely physical, when he couldn't let himself go properly. Because Cas had explained to him about sexuality and souls and the energy that two souls create when they touch one another, and that while Cas didn't have a soul _per se_ , it was definitely something he could experience too.

Wait…

"It's the energy they're after," he said, his eyes finding Cas'. "What you told me about – the sex energy thing."

Cas nodded. "That is what feeds succubi and incubi, and possibly this mer-creature, should it indeed exist."

"That's why it goes after couples, right? They were getting their freak on outside? The mermaid gets attracted and _bam_?"

"Presumably."

"But why aren't we finding the bodies? I mean, we assumed it's a sea creature instead of a succubus because there's no bodies, but if it's feeding off the energy…?"

Cas sighed and shrugged. "I don't know, Dean. Perhaps it consumes them and enjoys the flavour of oxytocin? We are hunting something unknown."

Dean hated being reminded of that: he remembered too vividly all the times he had hunted unknown things recently. He even remembered hunting the Jefferson Starship monster mash-ups, like Sammy thought this might be. But they had been something of Eve's, and she was still stuck in Purgatory here and never getting out now that Cas wasn't messing with stuff he shouldn't be messing with.

Dean didn't know what to say, because he had a horrible feeling he knew what they needed to do to catch this thing. He only hoped that no-one else had fallen prey last night because they hadn't found this thing yet.

The BBC's website (Ellie had assured him it was the best one for the UK) had no new reports, but it was also possible that there were people missing who just hadn't been reported missing yet, or who the journos didn't know about yet.

He kissed Cas before grabbing a shower. When he got out, Cas was already dressed and, judging by the slightly blank look on his face, conversing with Gabriel over angel radio.

Dean dressed quickly, giving Cas a bit of time.

"I told Gabriel about your ideas," he said, blinking. Angel radio didn't seem to hurt him like it used to but he still came out of it a bit disorientated, like the real world was a shock to him.

"Oh?"

"She agrees that you might well be correct," Cas said. "Ellie postulates that if the creature is indeed hybrid, it may well need both the energy and the meat of its victims to survive."

Dean pulled his flannel shirt on, checked his hair in the mirror and turned back to Cas. "Let's go fill Sam in. He's going to want to go to this library with every theory we got."

.oOo.

Dean had called it: Sam was holed up in the National Library for Wales, up the hill near the university and almost out of town. To be fair, though, there wasn't a whole lot of town: Sam was less than a mile from the coast. Gabriel had sent a text assuring Dean that Sam was in 'nerd Nirvana', and had even sent a picture to prove it. Sam was so engrossed in his research that he was completely oblivious to the camera, and the fact that he happened to have antlers.

It was good to see that Gabriel was being useful and doing something other than flirting with the locals in Welsh, which was a ridiculous language and contained far too many English words to be believable.

Dean had ended up on the boat with Cas, and they had headed out to sea in the vain hope that the might just catch sight of their monster on the sonar. The sun was shining, but it was still cold out on the water and Dean was thoroughly fed up by the time his stomach reminded him it was lunchtime. Cas took pity on him and flew them back to dry land.

They sat on the boardwalk (which Cas informed him was called a 'promenade' here) to eat, and Dean got his first real opportunity to see the impact this monster was having: there was hardly anyone here; certainly no-one hanging around like they were. And those who did dash along the seafront were single people, or a couple groups of students. No families, no couples enjoying a vacation; something Dean was assured would be normal for the time of year. There were no groups of two at all, except him and Cas.

"Bait."

Cas looked up from prodding his deep fried fish experimentally. His confused frown melted into something resigned as he cottoned on to Dean's train of thought.

"Dean…"

Dean dropped his fry ('chip', apparently. In English, anyway) back into the paper-wrapped tray. "I know, it's a sucky idea, but…"

Dean actually hated it, because Cas deserved so much more than to have their relationship used for anything, let alone to snag a beastie. But it was probably their best chance.

"It is significantly less suicidal than your brother's plan to allow Lucifer in," Cas said dryly. "And it is preferable to fruitless searching and potentially allowing others to be taken."

Dean knew Cas would see it that way, which didn't really make him feel any better about it. And just to make him feel worse, they were going to have to tell Sam and Gabriel because if things went to plan, they would literally be caught with their trousers down, and a little backup wouldn't hurt. But that meant that said backup would be watching…

Unless…

"Cas, can you find us somewhere kind of secluded?"

The next moment, they were on a deserted beach, with his back against one of the dunes that were cutting them off from the rest of the world. Cas was kissing him and hell if it wasn't hot despite everything. Despite Cas setting his blade down within easy reach as a stark reminder of why they were there.

This couldn't be slow and worshipful like Cas clearly wanted it to be: Dean could see the frustration in his face as he pushed Dean's jacket and shirt from his shoulders, carefully putting Dean's angel blade by Dean's right hand.

It took a while, and some judicious application of Cas' grace to get Dean to a point were this was even going to work. He had to split his attention, to keep an eye on the sea. The tide was creeping in, still a few feet from them but getting ever closer. It wasn't easy, focussing on two things at once; not when one of those things was Cas and what he was up to. Because that was something he wholeheartedly wanted to give his attention over to completely. He wanted to see the love and devotion in Cas' eyes, all the things that had always been there and Dean had been too far in denial to see before.

He would also much rather that this was more than just trying to get Dean off, because as much as Dean had never objected to it before, it wasn't what he wanted from Cas. Hell, he would have been happy without sex if that was what Cas had wanted: he just wanted them to be _together_ together, with all the sappy shit that came with it. Not this.

And, of course, with Winchester luck, she decided to show up at the worst possible moment.

He jerked on Cas' head and grabbed for his angel blade. Fortunately, Cas was more with it than Dean and flew to the thing's side, yanking her out of the water by her hair before she even knew what was going on. She howled with frustration, her hands grabbing fruitlessly first for Dean, then at Cas; the talons at the ends of her fingers shredding his shirt but making no impact whatsoever on his beautiful skin.

1

She was a mermaid, Dean supposed: vaguely feminine about the face, kind of woman-shaped up top and merging seamlessly into a tail down below, a tail that was still trailing in the water and splashing angrily. Her scales shimmered in the summer sun, gleaming green; darker on the tail and very pale and delicate over her upper body.

"Are you alone?" Cas growled at her.

She hissed and spit at him, but there was no sign of comprehension on her face. Cas repeated the question in what Dean assumed was Welsh (at least, it sounded like it), but with the same result.

This had given Dean the chance to pull himself together and dress. His blade was in his hand, but he was a bit wary of getting any closer to those slashing talons.

It was as well he had managed to get himself decent, because suddenly Sam and Gabriel were there too, Sam looking startled, Gabriel impressed.

"Sister, your skills as a linguist would be most helpful here," Cas said calmly, as if discussing a tricky passage in a book rather than the creature dangling from his hand, six feet above the water. "She does not appear to understand English or Welsh, and it would be beneficial to discover whether or not she has any companions that might also be a danger to the local population."

"What? How?" Sam stared at the mermaid in shock. "How did you catch it?"

Dean grinned at him unrepentantly, and Sam blushed. "Dean, really?"

Gabriel, meanwhile, was listening carefully to the mermaid's hissing and spitting, trying to determine whether or not there was an actual language there. After a couple of minutes she sighed.

"Fuck it, let's just do this the hard way. Cas, drop her down a bit."

She reached up and touched two fingers to the forehead of the suddenly unresisting mermaid and closed her eyes. There was a weird still calm that fell over the beach. Even the incoming tide seemed to quiet.

Gabriel opened her eyes, dropped her fingers and sighed. "She's alone," she said. "Got separated from her pod a few months back."

She turned to the two humans. "Yours, I believe, Deano."

Dean nodded and stepped forward. She looked so pathetic, dangling from Cas' hand by her hair, that he had to remind himself that this bitch had killed fourteen people, and would have happily chomped on him and Cas too. Still, there wasn't much satisfaction in burying the angel blade in her chest and putting an end to yet another monster.

.oOo.

Ellie and Gabriel took the thing apart with scary efficiency, just like Bobby used to do occasionally. Like Bobby might one day do again. Turned out she was fish enough to have gills so that she could breathe underwater, and mammal enough to have both some small lungs so that she could survive long enough on land to catch and kill her prey. And she was the guilty one; Gabriel managed to positively identify some human remains left in her digestive system from the girls she had taken just three days previously. But the most disturbing thing, the thing they thought had driven her to take so many people alone was the swollen uterus.

Dean was reminded of Amy, the kitsune friend of Sam's he had offed two years from now, killing to support her son. He wished he could say he didn't get it, because he would have done anything to protect Ben, to protect Sam. He always made sure Sam was fed, even doing things he knew were wrong to keep his brother safe and well.

Then again, this thing was killing people, just like Amy had.

Didn't make it any easier.

Ellie documented the autopsy carefully, noting everything they found about this new creature just like any other hunter did in their journals. And once she was done, she burned the body. That really was a handy skill for getting rid of monster evidence.

Dean took the opportunity of their last night to really inspect the complex wards Juriaan Van Helsing had covered his bedroom with over seventy years ago. Cas pulled a huge sheet of paper out of thin air and made meticulous copies of each and every sigil, down to its exact placement in the room. Once they were done, Cas took some time, sat on the edge of the bed to work out how they all worked together before smiling.

"These are ingenious," he said to Dean. "Gabriel's son clearly had a flare for Enochian spellwork."

Dean slid in behind him and looked at the sigils. He, Sam and Bobby had spent weeks trying to pull apart the different parts of the banishing sigil, and the various angel wardings, and only began to vaguely understand how they worked. Dean could make out a few bits and pieces of these wards and see how they pulled together to keep an angel in rather than out, but a lot went straight over his head.

"Can you make them work for you?"

Cas nodded. "Yes, I believe so. I will have to get Gabriel to check over the amendments, but as you know, they are functional as they are. Mostly."

Cas' eyes were gleaming as he looked up at Dean.

"I guess 'mostly' will have to do for now," Dean said with a grin, and leaned in to kiss Castiel.


End file.
